Monday, September 24, 2007

Ah well, another one bites the dust. Try as I could, this sweater just didn't work for me. It looks fabulous as long as I stand in a strange leaning fashion. If I actually WEAR it and sit down or stand normally, the baggly lines at the back just drove me nuts. I either needed to knit a smaller size overall or make some more damn adjustments in the waistline. I have a teeny tiny waist. That's a nice thing, except it helps to accentute the NOT so teeny hips & thighs. Ah well. I just need to REMEMBER that fact and make adjustments on my patterns. Duh. Ah well.

My big quest to finish the first boyfriend sweater is a decision not to cast on for anything else until it gets done. Yeah. Some of you knitters are good with that, it just doesn't work for me. I do now have two sleeves, although one turned out about 2 inches longer than the other, so I need to frog back to the last decrease round and reknit the ends. I'll cast on for the neckline hopefully tonight while watching some tv.

I also swatched, didn't get gauge and had to go smaller needles on an acrylic yarn I'd bought on sale for a Wonderful Wallaby hooded sweater for Joey. The gauge at the bigger size was feeling a titch tight, but on the smaller needles and sleeve I started to check gauge, it felt like iron. Plasticky iron. I think I could even hear it squeeench when I rubbed it. I think that may have been yarn snobbery guilt at clothing the rest of the family in natural fibers. I mean, what if he wandered too close to a campfire? He'd melt in a horrible puddle and the rest of the family would stop smouldering as soon as the flame was removed. Yeah. I'm gonna go look at some cascade 220 superwash and try again. I found a very cool Wonderful Wallaby FAQ site and am going to cast on for this probably tonight too if I find the yarn. The whole campfire thing? Over-imagination? Not really. Jeff is a LARGE bonfire making man. We don't do the little start with twigs and dry grasses, slowly adding bigger twigs until a nice, safe fire is going. Nope, there's usually a bit of gasoline and a large "WHOOOOOSHH", then flames to the sky and people for miles around come and gather together whenever we camp out. Yup, my boy's gonna get some good ol' flame resistant natural fiber wool. I'll use the acrylic for an afghan.

Also worked a little on Joey's blue-toed socks. I had one ball of Lorna's Laces in the same colorway I used to make his first pair of socks last year. Wow. Have I really only been making socks for a year? No, my first pair were for Jeff for Valentine's day in 2006, so I guess that's about a year and a half. HOW did I survive drive thru's, red lights, waiting at doctor's offices and the like without my car-sock projects? Anyway, these are turning out less fugly than I thought. He thinks they look good, so I guess that's all that matters. I'm not really sure if the one ball of yarn will last even with adding in blue toes and heels. Yes, I KNOW that dividing up the ball and knitting toe-up would allow me to then stripe blue at the top should I need it, but that would just be too damn easy and make too much sense. Yes, this is probably the same thinking that enables me to make entire sweaters and weave in ends and wear it for a while before deciding I need to frog it. Ah well. That's just one of my quirks. I've learned to live with it and even enjoy the suspense......will I have enough yarn......will I make it? Boy, I need to get more excitement in my life.